What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[Harp]

Die Hard...Family gathering this evening and a nephew had the remote. Apparently this wasted
two hours is the kid's idea of a Christmas family film; then something like Up...Yours? featuring
Leonardo DiCaprio, an end-of-the-world dark comedy which I succeeded voir dire like dismissal
before a sister grabbed the remote and selected some Hallmark like loser with Rob Lowe.
Well, all the more recent holiday Christmas movies seem collectively a bunch of vapid crap.
Call me a curmudgeon but I call a spade a spade. I needed a Christmas Carol with Sim or Scott,
ahhh...Merry Christmas everone.

 

[Fading Fast]

Lady on a Train from 1945 with Deanna Durbin, David Bruce, Ralph Bellamy, Dan Duryea and Edward Everett Horton


Lady on a Train is part mystery (of the Nancy Drew kind), part romcom, very little part noir and very little part Christmas movie laced with a shot of screwball comedy. But none of that really matters as this is a Deanna Durbin vehicle that only works if you like Deanna Durbin.

If you do, though, it's a fun romp from beginning to end as long as you don't take any of it seriously. Durbin plays a San Francisco debutante who, just as her train is about to enter Grand Central, sees, out of her compartment window, a possible murder.

With no murder having been reported that evening, Durbin is dismissed by the police (in particular, by desk sergeant William Frawley, playing yet another put-upon character) as a "silly girl" who's read to many murder mystery books - which she has.

Frustrated, Durbin then attempts to solve the mystery herself, which requires her to elude her family-provided New York chaperone, the nervous Nellie, Edward Everett Horton. She, then, recruits, for her quest, her favorite mystery writer, the reluctant-to-get-involved David Bruce, while also getting herself entangled with the dead man's wealthy family who mistakes her for his nightclub-singer girlfriend.

If it sounds confusing and silly that's because it is confusing and silly, but in a the-plot-doesn't-really-matter way. Lady on a Train is all about watching pretty and perky Durbin, oftentimes with more guts than sense, stumble her way forward as a combination of intuition and intelligence keeps her somehow on the right path.

The stumbling takes her to the nightclub of the dead man's former girlfriend where Durbin is chased by the "bad guys" (the real murderer's henchmen), while she, again, gets mistaken for a singer. This gives singer Durbin an opportunity to perform a number. After that, it's more running, chasing, finding and losing clues, flirting with the mystery writer and, eventually, after a "close call," (spoiler alert, I guess) solving the crime and marrying the mystery writer.

Lady on a Train is a light and entertaining Durbin effort. Her expressions are her go-to move as she can convey almost any emotion or thought with a flash of her eyes, a wiggle of her nose or a furrowing of her brow. With one of Hollywood's best voices at that time, Durbin was a heck of a double threat. Enough of one to make even movie fluff like Lady on a Train an enjoyable romp.


N.B. Durbin is a talented actress and singer, but she also has a surprising talent for being able to look good wearing absolutely ridiculous hats.

 

[Harp]

^Gorgeous Deanna Durbin. After my nephew fixed last night with asinine vapid Die Hard
I argued for the new Lucy film but for some reason this proved elusive, and a sister grabbed
the remote then chose a dumbass Hallmark romantic piece of garbage with Rob Lowe-brow,
set in Africa. And my Christmas stocking only had a tree ornament; everone else had small liquor
bottles and candy. Did I ever crap out stocking wise plus I can't stand Bruce Willis. Also, Willis,
a supposed New York cop (the NYPD has an extraordinary explosive ordinance course-even the military
sends guys there for training) repeatedly exercised lousy fire discipline, so did the chucklehead
terrorists. They all wasted ammo like crazy. And Bruce really screwed up alot. Gave his position
away yappin on the phone. Anyhowze, Deanna D. always worthwhile. A good film for a drink
and light script once-in-awhiles. There is so much vapid mindlessfluff and pablum liberality corrective out there.

 

[Edward Reed]

I believe I found the source inspiration for The Big Bang Theory! “Ball of Fire” (1941)
Gary Cooper plays a character exactly like Sheldon Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck is their Penny! Excellent film! Very funny and a great look into the evolving use of slang! Perhaps it should have been titled the Big Slang Theory! Lol!

 

[Zombie_61]

Well then, how about Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe (1941)? Directed by Frank Capra and produced at Warner Bros.. The plot is, for anyone who hasn't seen it, is a bit too complicated to sum up in a few quick lines. "Long John" Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a drifter and former baseball player, is hired by newspaper reporter Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) to pretend to be "John Doe", the writer of a fake letter listing complaints and grievances regarding everything wrong with America and who claims he's going to perform a very public suicide by jumping off of the newspaper building on Christmas Eve as a political statement. There's a lot more to it than that, but you'll have to watch it to find out. Stanwyck and Cooper work well with each other, as do Cooper and Walter Brennan who plays Willoughby's friend and traveling companion "The Colonel".

 

[Edward Reed]

Well then, how about Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe (1941)? Directed by Frank Capra and produced at Warner Bros.. The plot is, for anyone who hasn't seen it, is a bit too complicated to sum up in a few quick lines. "Long John" Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a drifter and former baseball player, is hired by newspaper reporter Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) to pretend to be "John Doe", the writer of a fake letter listing complaints and grievances regarding everything wrong with America and who claims he's going to perform a very public suicide by jumping off of the newspaper building on Christmas Eve as a political statement. There's a lot more to it than that, but you'll have to watch it to find out. Stanwyck and Cooper work well with each other, as do Cooper and Walter Brennan who plays Willoughby's friend and traveling companion "The Colonel".

Yes I watched that one this weekend as well! Very well done. I wasn’t too sure about it at the start of the film but it gets very deep and poignant in the second half. I was very impressed with gary cooper in that one!

 

[Doctor Strange]

Two quick observations on these last movies:

Billy Wilder's script for Ball of Fire was conceived as a variation on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A girl on the run is taken in by seven strange dudes who live together, and it's a learning experience for both. (The "fish out of water" trope wasn't yet identified or named.)

Frank Capra agonized over the ending of Meet John Doe, and shot several different endings, trying to find the best way to resolve the plot dilemma he'd created. None, including the one they finally used, were entirely successful. The film remained a disappointment to Capra for the rest of his life, but it's by no means a total failure to viewers.

 

[Fading Fast]

Crooks Anonymous from 1962 with Leslie Phillips, Julie Christie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Pauline Jameson


A quirky British Christmas movie and Julie Christie; whichever genius came up with this one deserves more recognition as I love quirky 1950s/60s British movies, love Christmas pictures and love Julie Christie. Plus, I have been searching for thirty-plus years for a Julie Christie movie, other than Doctor Zhivago, that I want to watch more than once.

In Crooks Anonymous, Leslie Phillips is an urbane small-time crook - shoplifting, pickpocketing and safecracking - whose girlfriend (cue angelic singing in the background) Julie Christie gives him an ultimatum: she will only accept his proposal of marriage if he goes straight.

Phillips is a likable rogue who doesn't want to give up his chosen "profession" or Julie Christie, but forced to choose, he makes the right decision and tries to go straight. His efforts are boosted when he's "recruited" by "Crooks Anonymous," an AA type organization for inveterate criminals.

A chunk of the movie is now devoted to Phillips going to some kind of rehab for crooks - in one exercise, he's locked in a room with several safes to crack, but gets punished each time he's successful. This part is a little too silly and has too little Julie Christie in it, but the plot must be advanced.

Now out of "rehab," Phillips gets a seasonal job as a department store Santa. He seems to be making a sincere effort at not being a criminal, all positively reinforced when Julie Christie, in response to his reforming, agrees to marry him.

In the climax, Phillips ends up accidentally locked in the department store over the Christmas weekend where the store's large amount of cash from all its Christmas Eve business is being held until the banks open on Monday.

It's not fair to lock a reformed alcoholic in a bar, but that's what Phillips is up against. He calls his sponsor for help, who, upon seeing the safe full of money, calls his sponsor and on and on until several senior Crooks Anonymous members, all reformed criminals themselves, are staring at an unguarded pile of untraceable money.

They all fail this recidivistic test as they stuff satchels full of the money and escape the store dressed as santas (it's still Christmas Eve). Then, it's a run in with Julie Christie who gives them an ultimatum where they all have to decide which path in life to take.

(Spoiler Alert). You know early on this is a feel good movie, so now all that's left is a Keystone Cop effort to return the money before it's discovered missing. After that, it's the cherry on the sundae - Phillips gets to marry Julie Christie.

Crooks Anonymous has a 1930s pre-code movie vibe where the criminals are likable rapscallions, the crimes seem (almost) harmless and the romance is the real driver of the story (think William Powell and Kay Francis or William Powell and Bette Davis or William Powell and Carole Lombard). It's a silly and fun throwback movie whose only real mistake is not giving ridiculously young and beautiful Julie Christie more screen time.

 

[Doctor Strange]

Capturing Mary, a 2007 British TV/HBO film I ran across.



In present-day London, a distressed old woman (Maggie Smith) shows up at a carefully maintained but empty mansion, and despite his orders never to admit anyone, the young caretaker lets her in and allows her to walk around as she recalls her time there when she was young (and played by Ruth Wilson) in the fifties and sixties.



She was manipulated, and her career as a journalist largely derailed, by an enigmatic man (David Walliams) who was always present at the soirees there who's essentially a social power broker armed with all kinds of dangerous secrets. He "captures" her with a carefully chosen series of revelations when they're alone in the spooky wine cellar that really throw her, and eventually push her to the brink of madness.



The film held my interest. The period flashbacks look great - or I should say, Ruth Wilson looks great. (So does Gemma Arterton, here in a small supporting role: it's her first film, she was still in acting school.) About my only complaint is that we know what Maggie Smith looked like when she was in her twenties/thirties... and it wasn't Ruth Wilson!

 

[Edward Reed]

Two quick observations on these last movies:

Billy Wilder's script for Ball of Fire was conceived as a variation on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. A girl on the run is taken in by seven strange dudes who live together, and it's a learning experience for both. (The "fish out of water" trope wasn't yet identified or named.)

Frank Capra agonized over the ending of Meet John Doe, and shot several different endings, trying to find the best way to resolve the plot dilemma he'd created. None, including the one they finally used, were entirely successful. The film remained a disappointment to Capra for the rest of his life, but it's by no means a total failure to viewers.

Yes I recognized the snow white reference . Really cool
As for Meet John Doe it would have had more weight if he had jumped and I fully expected it to be a heartbreaker tragedy. If it is remade today he would have committed suicide for certain making him a martyr for the movement. But In the 40s films seemed to almost always have a positive feel good ending.

 

[Doctor Strange]

It was the audiences who expected that positive ending too. I believe Capra tested an ending where John Doe killed himself, and the audience reaction was a disaster. I need to pull out my copy of Capra's biography (The Name Above the Title, which is a great read) and double check.

And don't forget the Production Code. Only evil characters could commit suicide as a plot resolution: it was too sinful an act for a heroic protagonist. And it was still true five years later: they wouldn't have allowed George Bailey to drown either!

 

[Edward Reed]

And don't forget the Production Code. Only evil characters could commit suicide as a plot resolution: it was too sinful an act for a heroic protagonist. And it was still true five years later: they wouldn't have allowed George Bailey to drown either!

Ah good point!

 

[Zombie_61]

...Frank Capra agonized over the ending of Meet John Doe, and shot several different endings, trying to find the best way to resolve the plot dilemma he'd created. None, including the one they finally used, were entirely successful. The film remained a disappointment to Capra for the rest of his life, but it's by no means a total failure to viewers.

Knowing this, I believe Mr. Capra et al chose the proper ending for the movie. All business, societal, and political issues aside, strictly from a storytelling perspective the character "Long John" Willoughby entered into the agreement with absolutely no intentions of actually committing suicide. His goal was to behave like a "regular" but disenchanted member of society for a while, collect a decent paycheck, then move on with his friend and traveling companion The Colonel. Even though he gets rather caught-up in the events and to some degree actually becomes John Doe, there's still no real motivation for him to actually commit suicide. If they had chosen that ending, it would have made far less sense.

 

[Harp]

View attachment 391132
Crooks Anonymous from 1962 with Leslie Phillips, Julie Christie, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Pauline Jameson


A quirky British Christmas movie and Julie Christie; whichever genius came up with this one deserves more recognition as I love quirky 1950s/60s British movies, love Christmas pictures and love Julie Christie. Plus, I have been searching for thirty-plus years for a Julie Christie movie, other than Doctor Zhivago, that I want to watch more than once.

In Crooks Anonymous, Leslie Phillips is an urbane small-time crook - shoplifting, pickpocketing and safecracking - whose girlfriend (cue angelic singing in the background) Julie Christie gives him an ultimatum: she will only accept his proposal of marriage if he goes straight.

Phillips is a likable rogue who doesn't want to give up his chosen "profession" or Julie Christie, but forced to choose, he makes the right decision and tries to go straight. His efforts are boosted when he's "recruited" by "Crooks Anonymous," an AA type organization for inveterate criminals.

A chunk of the movie is now devoted to Phillips going to some kind of rehab for crooks - in one exercise, he's locked in a room with several safes to crack, but gets punished each time he's successful. This part is a little too silly and has too little Julie Christie in it, but the plot must be advanced.

Now out of "rehab," Phillips gets a seasonal job as a department store Santa. He seems to be making a sincere effort at not being a criminal, all positively reinforced when Julie Christie, in response to his reforming, agrees to marry him.

In the climax, Phillips ends up accidentally locked in the department store over the Christmas weekend where the store's large amount of cash from all its Christmas Eve business is being held until the banks open on Monday.

It's not fair to lock a reformed alcoholic in a bar, but that's what Phillips is up against. He calls his sponsor for help, who, upon seeing the safe full of money, calls his sponsor and on and on until several senior Crooks Anonymous members, all reformed criminals themselves, are staring at an unguarded pile of untraceable money.

They all fail this recidivistic test as they stuff satchels full of the money and escape the store dressed as santas (it's still Christmas Eve). Then, it's a run in with Julie Christie who gives them an ultimatum where they all have to decide which path in life to take.

(Spoiler Alert). You know early on this is a feel good movie, so now all that's left is a Keystone Cop effort to return the money before it's discovered missing. After that, it's the cherry on the sundae - Phillips gets to marry Julie Christie.

Crooks Anonymous has a 1930s pre-code movie vibe where the criminals are likable rapscallions, the crimes seem (almost) harmless and the romance is the real driver of the story (think William Powell and Kay Francis or William Powell and Bette Davis or William Powell and Carole Lombard). It's a silly and fun throwback movie whose only real mistake is not giving ridiculously young and beautiful Julie Christie more screen time.

Perhaps a Pasternak trade for Hardy---Julie starred in Far From The Madding Crowd.

 

[ChiTownScion]

We started a three-day run of "Being The Ricardos" last night, a film that left me irritated on multiple levels.

Let's start with the first -- Aaron Sorkin is a self-important bourgeois twit who's been told he's a great auteur so many times that he's come to actually to believe it. But I have never found him to live up to the hype, either in television or movies. His characters are merely vehicles for talking points, and while an author like Paddy Chayefsky knew how to use such characters to deliver his points in a blistering, unforgettable way, Sorkin's deliver their messages with all the vigor of a think piece in a dentist's waiting-room magazine. There are important points to be made in the story of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, but Sorkin makes them limply, by reshaping the facts to suit his narrative, and then dragging it out for an interminable two-and-a-quarter hours that seem like three.

The film concentrates several aspects of the Ball-Arnaz-"I Love Lucy" saga into one single week, which is the first instance of Sorkinesque fact-reshaping. In short order, Lucy discovers that Desi has been cheating on her, as he habitually did thruout their marriage, and then discovers that she's pregnant, and is then exposed as a Communist by Walter Winchell. All the while she argues with her head writer over how to stage a comedy scene in that week's episode. A pretty full week for anyone, really, but compressing all this into seven days for the sake of the story reduces the dramatic impact of each of the stories being told, and forces Sorkin into a clunky non-linear technique that, given the film's lax attention to period detail, often leaves you wondering just when the scene you're watching is supposed to be taking place.

The casting isn't as impressive as it sounds on paper. Nicole Kidman, her botox-compromised features masked by prosthetics, is an adequate Lucy, but has none of the real Lucy's physicality -- you hear about her mastery of physical comedy, but other than a limp restaging of the "grape stomping" scene you see none of it. Javier Bardem isn't quite there as Desi. Nina Arianda is, visually, an excellent Vivian Vance for what you get of her, but it would've been nice to delve a bit into the character's colorful background and give the actress a bit more to do than rasp insults and look aggrieved. The one standout performance is J. K. Simmons as William Frawley, presented here as an Archie Bunker-like curmudgeon with a heart of gold. Simmons nails the character to the point where I had to keep reminding myself what the real Frawley looked like.

The period detail, as noted, is only skin deep, and it's pretty clear that in some cases only minimal research was done. The scene of Lucy doing her postwar radio show is ludicrous, showing her performing without a script -- which, as a veteran radio performer dating back to the late thirties, she certainly knew better than to do, and which her director, in any case, would not have permitted her to do. The scenes of the television show being blocked and shot are somewhat better, but not by much.

The thing that bugs me most about this picture, though, is the way it goes out of its way to paint Lucy as a political naif. Thruout the picture she rejects pressure to say she "checked the wrong box" when she registered as a Communist in the 1936 election, but the explanation that she "did it to please her grandfather" is also a bit disingenuous, given her unapologetic support for various progressive causes from the 1930s thru the war years. The truth of her political affiliation jibes with neither of the stories, but Sorkin finds that truth a bit too complicated for the simplified story he wants to tell. He also leaps from oversimplification to outright fabrication when he makes, of all people, J. Edgar Hoover the deux-ex-machina who clears Lucy in a phone call to Desi during a pre-show warmup in front of a studio audience. The historical Desi did deliver a plea on her behalf in a warmup in front of an audience -- "the only thing red about her is her hair, and even that's fake!" -- but not only did Hoover have nothing to do with that, Hoover actively monitoried both Arnaz and Ball and kept case files on them open until his death. By obscuring the reality of Lucy's actual real-world politics Sorkin does exactly what he accuses Hollywood of doing at several points in the picture -- he takes away her agency, and makes her just another pawn in the service of his own purposes.

There was the nucleus of a really good movie here. I wish I'd seen it.

Finally got to watch, "Being the Ricardos" today. Overall, I'm a bit less critical than Lizzie is of the film, but I concur as to the phone call of exoneration from Hoover that never was. Perhaps they wanted to tie things up with a neat happy ending within the aforesaid one-week perimeter. It took, of course, a much longer period of time for some semblance of sanity to emerge after the uglier episodes of Red baiting in the 1950's. That makes, in my book, individuals who were on the receiving end of it such as Lucille Ball all the more admirable for prevailing, but even a nod to J. Edgar for a sense of fair play that he never possessed undermines the tragedy.

 

[Fading Fast]

Remember the Night from 1940 with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Beulah Bondi


Remember the Night is an ahead-of-its-time Christmas movie. Sure, there's the surface trappings of a traditional 1940s holiday picture: two young, good-looking people fall in love despite some obstacles, which includes a hijinks-filled road trip home for the holiday. There's also a perfect "Christmas on the farm -" fluffy snow, a fresh-cut tree, gaslights, a barn dance - and plenty of presents and sacrifices all around, but then, (spoiler alert) it doesn't end all happy and perfect.

New York City Assistant District Attorney Fred MacMurray bails out shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck right before Christmas because he "tricked" the judge into having her held until the trial resumes after the holiday. Once out, he doesn't know what to do with her, so when he learns she's from his home state of Indiana, and since he's driving there for the holiday, he offers to drop her off at her mother's home for Christmas and drive her back afterwards.

While she is immediately attracted to him, MacMurray, initially, is almost annoyed that he has to take her with him. It's a good Christmas romcom start, followed by the road trip home, where he begins to fall for her. Then, after a crushing scene where Stanwyck's mother brutally denounces her daughter in front of MacMurray (the first hint this isn't your ordinary 1940s Christmas movie), he takes her to his house for Christmas.

Cue the perfect on-the-farm Christmas with a loving mother, Beulah Bondi, and a kind spinster aunt. Mother Bondi embraces Stanwyck even after MacMurray tells her who she really is. Up to now, it's close to a Christmas-by-the-numbers effort as all that's left is for these two kids to admit they love each other, kiss and get married.

But MacMurray's sincerely kind mother, on the last night of the visit, pulls Stanwyck aside to tell her how hard her son worked to get to where he is and how marrying Stanwyck would wreck his career. Bondi is not mean or tiger-mom about it, she just lays the truth out for Stanwyck and leaves it up to Stanwyck to decide what to do.

On the ride home, MacMurray is all "when we get married," but Stanwyck tries to set him straight, despite desperately wanting to marry him. MacMurray even offers to let her escape in Canada (they drive through it on the way home), but level-headed Stanwyck sees the only chance at a future for them is for her to return and face the courtroom. Heck, you're so rooting for these two at this point, you almost want both of them to just stay in Canada and get married.

(Spoiler alerts) Back in the courtroom on Monday, when MacMurray tries to throw the case for Stanwyck, she stops him and pleads guilty. This is some serious sacrifice, which ends with Stanwyck on her way to jail, MacMurray saying he'll wait and she saying we'll see.

Perhaps Remember the Night is not more-well known or beloved because it doesn't have a neatly packaged, happy Christmas-movie ending. It's a more serious movie, which makes it, in a way, a better movie, but clearly not more popular.

It probably would have been more accepted if it had played down its Christmas elements (had even been released in the summer). Audiences might have embraced its realistic ending had they not first been "set up" for a happy Christmas one.


N.B. And so ends this year's round of Christmas movies at the Fading Fasts.

 

[Zombie_61]

Just finished up "Rambo: Last Blood." Although none of the sequels hold a candle to the moral told in "First Blood," I feel like this one comes the closest. Much like the original, at its heart, it's a film about loss and the difficulty John Rambo has in dealing with it. You could say that the movie wittles down to "the cartel screwed with the wrong man," but I feel like that would be a disservice to the story Stallone was trying to tell.

I think it's interesting how both Stallone and Rambo adapt the story, the acting, and the character to math his age. Rambo is old, and this movie doesn't hide that fact. He can't just face a problem by jumping head first into it and slicing as throats as they come to him. When Rambo tries it in this movie, he gets hurt, real bad. He's quickly reminded that the the brute strength of his use is just not there. I liked seeing Rambo overcome this by using his wits to create traps, and force the cartel to come fight him on his terms. He's the Rambo we've always known, but wiser from experience...

This is one of the reasons I enjoy discussing movies so much. Having seen and enjoyed (almost) all of the previous "Rambo" movies I finally had the opportunity to watch Rambo: Last Blood a few nights ago and my opinion was quite different from yours. I understand the things you liked about the movie and I can't argue against any of them. But, overall, I felt Last Blood was simply pointless. First and foremost, there aren't enough scenes of Rambo and young Gabriela before she's kidnapped by the cartel for us to determine what kind of relationship exists between them. He's distraught and seems to feel about her as if she was his daughter, but we don't get to see why. Then Rambo, an experienced combat veteran, decides to have a face-off with a Mexican drug cartel's leading men, and he just walks into their world almost completely unprepared? And gets beaten nearly to death in the process? I didn't buy ANY of it. As I was watching, one word kept running through my mind: dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb. I could go on nit-picking, but I really don't want to influence anyone here who still wants to watch it (assuming I haven't already). No, I think Mr. Stallone should have left well enough alone and ended the Rambo saga with the fourth movie--he finally goes home.

 

[MisterCairo]

Cairo Cavalcade of Christmas continues with catch-up films.

Wife and I had a double feature of A Christmas Carol, 1951 Alastair Sim one and only, and then It's a Wonderful Life, accidentally the colourized version disk I was too lazy to replace.

 

[Harp]

View attachment 391859
Remember the Night from 1940 with Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck and Beulah Bondi


Remember the Night is an ahead-of-its-time Christmas movie. Sure, there's the surface trappings of a traditional 1940s holiday picture: two young, good-looking people fall in love despite some obstacles, which includes a hijinks-filled road trip home for the holiday. There's also a perfect "Christmas on the farm -" fluffy snow, a fresh-cut tree, gaslights, a barn dance - and plenty of presents and sacrifices all around, but then, (spoiler alert) it doesn't end all happy and perfect.

New York City Assistant District Attorney Fred MacMurray bails out shoplifter Barbara Stanwyck right before Christmas because he "tricked" the judge into having her held until the trial resumes after the holiday. Once out, he doesn't know what to do with her, so when he learns she's from his home state of Indiana, and since he's driving there for the holiday, he offers to drop her off at her mother's home for Christmas and drive her back afterwards.

While she is immediately attracted to him, MacMurray, initially, is almost annoyed that he has to take her with him. It's a good Christmas romcom start, followed by the road trip home, where he begins to fall for her. Then, after a crushing scene where Stanwyck's mother brutally denounces her daughter in front of MacMurray (the first hint this isn't your ordinary 1940s Christmas movie), he takes her to his house for Christmas.

Cue the perfect on-the-farm Christmas with a loving mother, Beulah Bondi, and a kind spinster aunt. Mother Bondi embraces Stanwyck even after MacMurray tells her who she really is. Up to now, it's close to a Christmas-by-the-numbers effort as all that's left is for these two kids to admit they love each other, kiss and get married.

But MacMurray's sincerely kind mother, on the last night of the visit, pulls Stanwyck aside to tell her how hard her son worked to get to where he is and how marrying Stanwyck would wreck his career. Bondi is not mean or tiger-mom about it, she just lays the truth out for Stanwyck and leaves it up to Stanwyck to decide what to do.

On the ride home, MacMurray is all "when we get married," but Stanwyck tries to set him straight, despite desperately wanting to marry him. MacMurray even offers to let her escape in Canada (they drive through it on the way home), but level-headed Stanwyck sees the only chance at a future for them is for her to return and face the courtroom. Heck, you're so rooting for these two at this point, you almost want both of them to just stay in Canada and get married.

(Spoiler alerts) Back in the courtroom on Monday, when MacMurray tries to throw the case for Stanwyck, she stops him and pleads guilty. This is some serious sacrifice, which ends with Stanwyck on her way to jail, MacMurray saying he'll wait and she saying we'll see.

Perhaps Remember the Night is not more-well known or beloved because it doesn't have a neatly packaged, happy Christmas-movie ending. It's a more serious movie, which makes it, in a way, a better movie, but clearly not more popular.

It probably would have been more accepted if it had played down its Christmas elements (had even been released in the summer). Audiences might have embraced its realistic ending had they not first been "set up" for a happy Christmas one.


N.B. And so ends this year's round of Christmas movies at the Fading Fasts.

awww....no more Christmas filmsVER

OK. Now shoplifting is a class A misdemeanor, basic docket calendar chump change. However,
shoplifting can elevate to a felony for sufficient cause tortious, criminal, linear; such as assault,
battery, or running through an emergency exit. Seems as though Babs dearest is strictly small change.
Fred can opt for cop-happens all the time. Babs can walk. No need for moralizing Xcept Mac really
screwed up bigtime Bozo. Just can't lie to the Judge. Then arrange a cop for Babs Big Valley.
He could be disbarred. Dumbass. Fred needs to recuse, allow things to proceed.

 

[MisterCairo]

Looking her up, I had no idea she was born in, of all places, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada.

Family, from England, moved to Southern California when she was still a baby.

We will gladly claim her as one of ours notwithstanding!

View attachment 390550
Lady on a Train from 1945 with Deanna Durbin, David Bruce, Ralph Bellamy, Dan Duryea and Edward Everett Horton


Lady on a Train is part mystery (of the Nancy Drew kind), part romcom, very little part noir and very little part Christmas movie laced with a shot of screwball comedy. But none of that really matters as this is a Deanna Durbin vehicle that only works if you like Deanna Durbin.

If you do, though, it's a fun romp from beginning to end as long as you don't take any of it seriously. Durbin plays a San Francisco debutante who, just as her train is about to enter Grand Central, sees, out of her compartment window, a possible murder.

With no murder having been reported that evening, Durbin is dismissed by the police (in particular, by desk sergeant William Frawley, playing yet another put-upon character) as a "silly girl" who's read to many murder mystery books - which she has.

Frustrated, Durbin then attempts to solve the mystery herself, which requires her to elude her family-provided New York chaperone, the nervous Nellie, Edward Everett Horton. She, then, recruits, for her quest, her favorite mystery writer, the reluctant-to-get-involved David Bruce, while also getting herself entangled with the dead man's wealthy family who mistakes her for his nightclub-singer girlfriend.

If it sounds confusing and silly that's because it is confusing and silly, but in a the-plot-doesn't-really-matter way. Lady on a Train is all about watching pretty and perky Durbin, oftentimes with more guts than sense, stumble her way forward as a combination of intuition and intelligence keeps her somehow on the right path.

The stumbling takes her to the nightclub of the dead man's former girlfriend where Durbin is chased by the "bad guys" (the real murderer's henchmen), while she, again, gets mistaken for a singer. This gives singer Durbin an opportunity to perform a number. After that, it's more running, chasing, finding and losing clues, flirting with the mystery writer and, eventually, after a "close call," (spoiler alert, I guess) solving the crime and marrying the mystery writer.

Lady on a Train is a light and entertaining Durbin effort. Her expressions are her go-to move as she can convey almost any emotion or thought with a flash of her eyes, a wiggle of her nose or a furrowing of her brow. With one of Hollywood's best voices at that time, Durbin was a heck of a double threat. Enough of one to make even movie fluff like Lady on a Train an enjoyable romp.


N.B. Durbin is a talented actress and singer, but she also has a surprising talent for being able to look good wearing absolutely ridiculous hats.
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